Hostal Mare Nostrum Blog

Come and enjoy the festival of "San Juan" in Barcelona

Do you know what is the shortest night of the year? The night of the festival of San Juan, and this year we will celebrate it on Sunday June 23, with the arrival of the summer solstice.
The tradition of this festival is to light a fire during the night of San Juan to give more power to the sun, which as of now is closer to the northern hemisphere, but also it starts to give us less minutes of sun, reaching back to winter solstice. The following day, the day of San Juan (Friday June 24, 2013) is a bank holiday in the country.
The celebration of this holiday is celebrated in various parts of Europe and each of them gives a different name to it: Spain (San Juan), Portugal (Fogueiras de São João), Norway (Jonsok), Denmark (Sankthans), Sweden (Midsummer ), Finland (Juhannus), Estonia (Jaanipäev) and the UK (Midsummer).
In Catalonia and Valencia it's very typical the famous bakes with pine nuts, and the bravest ones dare with firecrackers. For security reasons it is advisable to use fireworks in open spaces and with caution.
Do not miss the celebration of the festival of San Juan in Barcelona, and remember that if you do not have accommodation in our city, you can consult our offers.